spodek

> People choose platforms because of their functionality, not because of their code licensing status

I choose software based on the freedom behind their licenses and always will. I value my relationships with others over mere technical differences.

I hope you at least learn something of our existence, besides that without people who think and act this way, there'd be no Wikipedia, Linux, Wordpress, or alternative to Windows.

> Life is teeming nearly everywhere in the oceans

Historically, this was true but no longer. There is a fraction of the life that the ocean used to support. A great source is the book Once and Future World, which describes captains' logs before steamship. They reported that ships at sea would be stopped in the middle of the ocean, far from land, by schools of fish that densely packed. Today, people are happy to see a whale if they visit the coast. Not long ago, people could see whales as far as the eye could see all day long some times of year.

Also, to call the waters "oxygen-starved" in response to climate change misses the cause and effect. Specifically, human behavior is causing these things. They aren't just happening. If we change our behavior, we can change the results.

Clarifying the cause and effect helps clarify what to do about it besides passively watch it happen.

Also the difference between outdoors a generation ago and outdoors now. Depending on where you are, the decrease in birdcalls is huge, but happens so slowly that most people don't know what we're missing. That loss has been happening over longer than a generation or two.

Also, there are fewer places where you hear no car noises or planes at all.

We can do something about it, but it takes work.

Insecurity, lack of self-awareness, lack of support

I just got back from picking up litter, though I do it every other day too. People keep picking up the habit, so it's spreading. I've been on TV twice for plogging too.

Everyone thinks it will be dirty and ineffective, but then finds it oddly satisfying.

> Watching lecture videos is now a major part of many students’ university experience.

This sentence is the most important, describing a failure in education. Once I learned to teach through project-based learning, I'm never going back, largely because of student feedback, that they learn more and are more engaged.

I'm not saying we don't learn from lecture at all, but a lot less relative to other ways. Maybe some subjects or professors work with lecturing, but not subjects that I studied in college.

I can't believe people are downvoting your post. If they want to influence someone, understanding them is how to start. Saying "I'm right, you're wrong" provokes resistance. They want others to change to save lives but aren't willing to change themselves to save lives. Listening and making people feel understood goes a lot farther than facts, numbers, and orders.

First, no they don't. Look up successes in Thailand, Costa Rica, Iran, South Korea, and other nations that lowered their birth rates through noncoercive means that improved health, longevity, prosperity, equality, and stability.

Second, not lowering birth rates involved billions of people suffering and dying. There is no option where we keep living above sustainable levels without consequence.

That money will trickle down isn't a myth. It's an outright lie or fraud. It's more clear to see when you take away the imagery and see it says: giving money to rich people is giving money to poor people.

Wow, I took a class from Paul Steinhardt when I was starting my PhD in physics at Penn.

I think it was in him in his class who asked us how planes flew. I raised my hand and said the Bernoulli principle. He showed how despite schools teaching it forever, it couldn't be right. Otherwise planes couldn't fly upside down but they do.

Elon Musk is today's Robert Moses. People associate him with helping the environment, but he's pushing for growth as his top-line strategy. He may lower emissions from tailpipes, but systemically, he's exacerbating the problems.